A Rebel Lost
by BIG Z1776
Summary: Hoth is assaulted a Rebel Corporal, his squad, and a young smuggler must run for their lives with the most ruthless Star Destroyer in the Imperial Fleet hunting them where ever they hide. But there is more to this hunt than meets the eye. This suggler, Ally Valderam, is hiding something, so can these average troopers rise to this challenge? Please read and review. 1st Star Wars Fic
1. Chapter 1

**Here's to my first ever Star Wars Fan Fiction! This show has been among my favorites since I can remember, and no Sci Fi writer is ever truly complete without trying their hand at the granddaddy of them all. So without further ado, here's my story, **_**A Rebel Lost.**_

**Of course I didn't forget to put in a disclaimer. I do not lay claim to anything written in this story. Star Wars is the exclusive property of Lucas Arts and George Lucas. All of this is written for the purpose of having fun and getting an idea out of my head and onto the paper. **

**A Rebel Lost**

Chapter One

Planet Hoth

"Ten-hut!" the voice of Sargent Woods bellowed in the icy hall outside Second Squad's Barracks.

The twelve men and women of the squad snapped to attention as commanded by their gruff commander. They tried hard not to shiver in the cold but failed miserably. They were dressed in the white winter fatigues issued to them when they arrived on Hoth and were carrying their boxy backpacks and weapons over their shoulders. For the new greenhorns, this was their first day on Hoth, they'd all just arrived on a transport from Corellia that was in the midst of a record summer. The eight new rookies were young and inexperienced, the youngest of their number being a mere seventeen years old. They would have a rude awakening to life as a Rebel.

"Right, this is for you new blokes, I'm Sargent Woods. While you are under my command you will do as you are told. No more no less, I run a tight ship here no excuses lads and lasses. You are now soldiers of Alliance and will behave as such, do you get me?"

"Sir yes sir!" the new rookies hollered, stiffening up.

The older members of the squad smirked at the response the rookies had given their commander. It had been a while since they'd had some replacements, not since the Battle of Yavin IV had their squad ever been at full strength. Then again, no squads had been at full strength since Yavin.

"Now, since we have no training facilities for you to show me your training, assuming you've had any, you'll learn on the job. We've pulled some easy duty this morning, guard duty over the South Entrance and over the transports docked there. So let's move out! Left, face!"

The squad turned in unison to their left and waited for Woods to give the order to head out.

"Forward, march!"

As one, the squad started off, grateful to be moving at last and using that to stave off the cold they relished I the movement. Leading the pack was Sargent Woods, A295 slung over his shoulder. He stared ahead with the utmost confidence a decade of battle brought. He was followed by his most experienced troopers, Gage and Grey. Grey was a big man, hoisting the squad's only missile launcher over his shoulder with ease while Gage was armed with the standard A295 and a pair DC-17 Blasters, relics from the Clone Wars. Gage was something of an enigma, he was the oldest of the group and the most battle hardened, he took orders without question and performed them to the maximum efficiency. He didn't talk much and his tanned skin and crew cut black hair were signs of a past that he wanted to live down. Grey Past was the wise man of the group, knowing the secrets to every mystery that the younger members of the squad always came across. Needless to say he was the one man that would believe in the cause for freedom even if there were no Rebellion.

Then there was Sam Intar, the shady one of the group, he was a scheming man, always having a plan of some sort to get out of every battle and problem he could think of. Next to him was Nester Hind, the nut job of the squad and the reason the squad hadn't gone insane with boredom, he always had something that would get under the Sargent's nerves and push Gage to the point of stunning him with his DC-17's. Behind them were the rookies, Fara Hebridiim, the new sniper, Dex Hart, the squad's new technology expert, and the new riflemen; Xander, Thell, Dee, Cormen, Wyatt, and Rat. Last in the line was the squad's XO, Corporal Jack Ruyus, he'd been with the Rebellion since the beginning as a refugee who'd been taken under the wing of the Rebel Army and trained to fight for three years until he was allowed to the frontlines two years ago.

"Let's go, keep up the pace!" Jack said to a lagging Dex.

The squad marched past other Rebels on their way to the South Hangar where the supplies that ran and operated Echo Base were offloaded. A disorganized column of orange clad pilots came waltzing around the corner and threw a few insults their way as a show of superiority they believed they had.

"Hey, look who it is, the cannon fodder," one of them teased.

"I wonder how long these ones will last," another piled on.

"What did you say to me?" Rat pulled out of line to confront these flyboys.

The whole column stopped as their organization was disrupted by the young Rebel stepping out of line, literally and figuratively. Jack stepped up and grabbed Rat roughly by the shoulder and pulled him back.

"Get back in line Private."

"Thank you Corporal, I was afraid I was going to have to put this one in his place," the leader of the pilots said as Jack had his back turned.

Jack froze as the pilot implied what Jack thought he was implying. Sargent Woods saw this and subtly shook his head to warn off the temperamental Corporal.

"Stick to your specialty, in the air. We'll stick to ours on the ground."

"Running like little wamp rats?"

Jack balled his fist as he prepared to put these flyboys in their place before Sargent Woods could stop him from beating the pilot who said that into a smear on the wall. But as he was about to turn and slug the grinning pilot Gage grabbed him roughly by the arm and restrained him and looked him in the eyes with a look that said it all.

"They're not worth it sir," he whispered in his ear.

Jack nodded and returned his icy gaze to his Sargent who nodded and called out.

"Fall in!"

The twelve young infantrymen returned to their formation and continued on toward their assigned post. They passed other infantry, engineers, officers, and pilots on their way. The ice tunnels were crowded but not overly so. It took about five minutes to get to the large open space the South Hangar.

"Alright, take position around the perimeter, keep watch for those wampas. We don't want any more supplies or tauntauns being stolen," Woods hollered taking his rifle off of his back and readying it.

"You heard the man! Section One on that ridge with the Sargent! Section Two on me!" Jack yelled out assigning the individual duties of each section of six men and women. The squad immediately split up with the first section which contained the rookies Rat, Dee, Xander, and Thell along with the more experienced Sam and Nester.

The first section ran off past the groups of Rebels overseeing the offloading of several transport vehicles while the second took up a patrol around the transports in pairs. Jack was paired with Gage, as he always had been while Dex and Fara were paired up and Grey was with Cormen and Wyatt. Jack had to keep a watch with his equal over the newbies that had just arrived to make sure that they did their job. It was quiet and cold duty that they'd been assigned but they knew that they could be out on patrol instead.

"Gage, you hear something?" Jack asked, listening to the growing sound of engines.

"Yeah, I do, is that a ship?"

"Looks like it."

They both looked up in time to see a large shape come through the clouds and descend toward a large open space that was cleared for its apparent landing. The ship was a recognizable design, a CR-90 class Corvette, otherwise known as a Rebel Blockade Runner. IT was painted differently than most other ships of her class. It had a dark gray coat with several parallel red lines going down its length. The ship was well piloted as it came down with the grace of an X-Wing as the pilot brought her down right on top of the landing area that had been cleared for it.

"Ruyus," Woods called on the comm.

"Yes sir."

"You and Gage check that pilot's clearance and clear the cargo. The supply loaders are late this morning."

"Got it boss, come on Gage, let's give this flyboy a welcome."

"Or girl," Gage replied taking his rifle off his back to hold at the ready.

"Yeah, or girl, shutup and come on."

The two soldiers hustled over to the landing pad where the rookies Dex and Fara were already standing. Jack was about to order them back to their stations when the ship descending finally touched down. The ship landed with its port side facing them and as soon as the ship landed the men and women standing near the ship rushed towards it with fuel pumps and scanners ready to give the ship a quick once over. The ship powered down immediately and its engines hummed to silent and dimmed out. The lights on the ship however were still on, blinking away. The ship hissed as steam and assorted gasses belched from its open valves until they too were finally stopped as the ship itself settled on the ground. Finally the gangway shot out of the port side and the hatch opened up to reveal two things that Gage immediately aimed at.

"Droids!" Gage yelled aiming his weapon at the two gray B1 Type Battle Droids who walked down the ramp and started looking the ship over themselves.

"Drop that weapon Lance Corporal," Jack calmly ordered Gage.

"Sir, those are Battle Droids they'll…"

Gage was cut short by one of the droids falling flat on its face after stepping into the landing gear. It immediately began flailing as it tried to get to its feet. Gage blinked twice to take in the clumsiness of these so called killers.

"You were saying Gage?"

"Never mind sir."

"Come on, you two with us," Jack ordered Dex and Fara.

The four Rebel soldiers marched towards the open hatch of the ship and were confronted by the outline of a young woman stepping out of the ship and onto the ramp. She was of medium size, about 5'8" and thin with graceful curves that would turn the head of any man who saw her. Her wavy brunette hair reached her back and blew in the icy wind, she had a smirk of satisfaction at accomplishing her objective of landing her ship and its cargo. She was in a word, beautiful, and her clothing made that abundantly clear to the group. She wore tight brown leather pants with a holster attached to her belt with an extremely rare WESTAR 34 Blaster Pistol in chrome. The woman, more of a girl really, also wore a tan flight jacket with several pockets that diverged from the skin tight fabric. She had her hands on her hips as she waited at the ramp for the Rebel troops to come up.

"Hello boys," she called down to them, "like what you see?"

Fara slugged Dex on the shoulder and made him snap out of the stare he was currently performing on the young starship captain.

"I'm Corporal Ruyus, Eighth Battalion, Delta Company Second…"

"As much as I'd like to hear your life story, Corporal, I don't care. I'm here to drop off my cargo get my pay and leave."

"A smuggler," Gage observed with a bit of disdain.

"Captain Ally Valderam at your service," the girl responded with quite a bit of pride.

"Well, Captain, before you even think of going anywhere you'll be cleared by us, now we'll need to get aboard to inspect your ship," Jack explained to the girl who was leaning against the hatch that lead into the ship.

"Uh, how about no, no grunt can just waltz around on my ship!"

"That's too bad; now if you want to get paid you'll let us on your ship to check for Imperial tracking devices or bombs. That or we arrest you and inspect the ship anyway," Gage responded.

The girl pulled her exotic pistol out at the end of Gage's threat and aimed it at Gage's head. The Rebels aimed their rifles at the girl and the Battle Droids stopped what they were doing immediately to watch and wait for something to happen.

"I dare you to try," the smuggler hissed as other Rebels took notice of the situation.

The smuggler was very much outnumbered and outclassed by these soldiers and any wrong move who seal her fate before she could blink. But, thankfully for all involved a voice of authority stopped everything immediately.

"Stand down!" the voice of Han Solo bellowed at the Rebels and Allya.

The Rebels immediately dropped their weapons and stood down. Running up behind the crowd of troops was the blue clothed Captain who everyone on the base knew. It was Han Solo, and he immediately got to figuring out the problem and solving it.

"What's the trouble here Corporal?" Solo asked in a calm voice.

"This smuggler won't let us aboard to check her ship for anything unauthorized," Jack replied.

Ally shrugged and kept the weapon pointed from her hip.

"And you are?" Solo asked the young smuggler.

"Ally Valderam, I'm here to drop off my cargo, get my pay, and leave, but these boys wanted to make it a bit too hard."

"You're either stupid or a rookie," Solo nearly yelled, "it's standard procedure to check a cargo and a ship before giving the money, not just for the Rebel Alliance but for any client!"

"I…I..." Ally stammered, her cover of a tough independent smuggler threatened.

"Troopers, get this ship cleared and start unloading the cargo. You come with me," Solo stopped her stammering before she made herself into a real fool.

A stream of troops made their way onto the ship as Ally made her way down the ramp, much deflated but still holding her head high. Jack and Gage shouldered their weapons and turned to leave as the two smugglers walked into the base.

"Damn smugglers, no respect," Jack growled.

Solo led the way down a corridor to the HQ of the Base itself with Ally in tow.

"You are a rookie aren't you? How long have you been in the business?"

"This is my first ever mission, I hauled some freight legally but it didn't pay very well and the boss tried to…umm…"

"Is that why you have a pair of Battle Droids with you and a WESTAR 34 Blaster?" Solo asked, understanding.

"Actually I have about a dozen of those B1's and a pair of B2's but I only activate them when I'm in a place I don't know, yeah I know, I found them aboard the ship when I first…acquired her," Ally responded.

"What's her name anyway?" Solo asked casually.

"New Divide, oldest in her class."

"Hmm…that name sounds familiar, I can't remember why though."

Their conversation was cut short as the duo was stopped outside the entrance into the HQ by a pair of armed guards. The men checked Solo's clearance and nodded for him to enter and paid the two of them no mind. Ally was immersed in quite a bit of chaos as she walked into the crowded room where no one seemed to be doing nothing. Dozens of men and women were working furiously in the cold room, calling out numbers and status reports, going over scans from unseen devices, and running errands for those higher up the chain than themselves.

"Colonel," Solo called out to a man in a coat going over a great many reports on a holopad in front of him.

"What is it Solo?" the man replied not looking up.

"Uh Captain Valderam has arrived with…what is it you're hauling in that ship of yours?" Solo asked.

"Weapons, ammo, uniforms, equipment, you name I have it. Mostly infantrymen stuff."

"Good to see you made it Captain," Colonel Volosk, head of supply for the base, responded at the good news.

"Where's my money?" Ally responded to the man, her head on what she wanted.

"You'll have your money Captain, first we need to make sure you didn't swindle us on our deal."

"Fine, have the money by day's end. Now, if you need me I'll be in your rec room, getting my own reward off those sapps in there," she teased, turning to leave.

"She's a pistol," Solo observed, watching the girl walk out, turning heads as she went.

"Who, Ally? Yeah, but she's a rookie that makes stupid mistakes. It's a wonder she managed to bring that piece of junk all the way from Corellia without getting nabbed by a Star Destroyer," Colonel Volosk responded.

Ally waltzed down the hall until she found the metal door that led into the warmer metal rec room now being used by the Alliance soldiers and airman. It was a rowdy place, being a place for soldiers to relax and cut loose a bit, so she wasn't noticed as she walked in and let the door hiss shut behind her. The room was large, almost as large as the HQ she'd been in moments before. The walls were white, like they'd been taken right off a ship and buried here in the ice. There was a bar complete with numerous fountains and pipes for the soldiers to drink that was serviced by a six armed modified medical droid. There were several pilots there already along with a pair of officers. Several tables were being used for some games of assorted types. But Ally wasn't looking for a simple holo-game, she was looking for a game of Sabaac. And she found what she was looking for in the back corner where a group of assorted Rebels huddled around a circular table with a stack of money in the middle. She smiled and popped her fingers in readiness for the fun she was going to have.

Back outside the _New Divide_ was getting finished up being unloaded and the squad had finished its watch over the area and was headed inside to warm up and rest until their new orders came in. They were all tired and shivering as the day dragged on. They were all covered with crusted snow and ice that they tried to shake off of their white uniforms and weapons. But Jack was still fuming about the incident with the smuggler and the ice seemed to melt from the hot fury that had built up since that event. All he wanted to do was go to the rec room and get into a boxing match to just let loose some steam.

The Corporal marched into the room to see that the majority of the room was not spread out as they always were, but instead they were massed around the back corner where someone was always playing Sabaac. There were at least a dozen troopers, officers, and pilots there now. Being a bit curious the Corporal walked over and was infuriated yet again that day. There was Ally Valderam, playing Sabaac with several Rebel soldiers and winning. She saw him and smirked up at him, comfortable with all the people around her admiring her success.

"Care to join us Corporal? We could use some fresh meat for the grinder. These boys are just about empty already," Ally teased taking in another pot that emptied out most of the table.

"No thanks," Jack said, focusing on the smuggler's sleeve as she pulled in the cash.

"That's too bad, I'm sure that you would have been a steal anyway and not worth my time," she said back without so much as blinking.

"A steal huh?" Jack responded leaning on the table.

"That's right, care to prove me wrong?" she challenged him.

There was an awkward silence as the both of them sized each other up. The men and women of the crowd waited for either one of them to blink first or make a sudden move. But it was Jack who stepped to the plate to take her on in her arena.

"Let's do this," Jack responded, laying down his money.

"Okay, deal him in!" one of the men behind Jack hollered.

The cards went out fast, and the players grabbed their cards quickly and checked them over. Some of the other players at the table were not exactly gamblers as their facial expressions gave them away as soon as they got their cards. Each of the three other players folded after losing their pot money to a bad round of cards, but Jack had a decent hand, a ten, a six, and a five. A total of twenty-one, two points away from a perfect score. These cards were the old fashioned paper kind, which made them easy to manipulate therefore easy to cheat with. Jack watched carefully as Ally kept her cards face down, with her right precariously close to the center of the table with her arm covering it mostly. As she pulled her arm back to draw some credits to make a bet she brought her hand over her cards and Jack had to e sure he wasn't seeing things but the cards moved a bit as she put her arm back.

"You seem a bit confident there buddy," she taunted, trying to elicit a reaction from the young soldier.

"I am," Jack said, _but the reason I'm confident will end up costing you_, he thought.

"Show 'em," she ordered narrowing her eyes.

Jack flipped his good hand over and revealed his good hand and waited for her to show her own hand. She paused to take in his hand and then slowly, deliberately brought her hand over to reveal an even better set. It was two tens and a three, a perfect twenty-three. Jack didn't even flinch; he kept his composure as she reached out to grab the money he kept within arm's reach of himself.

"Well, like I said a steal…" she was interrupted by her right arm being grabbed suddenly by Jack in a vice like grip.

"Really?" Jack taunted, not letting go when she tried pulling back.

"What the Hell are you…" she was cut off by a gasp from the assembled crowd as Jack yanked two cards from her sleeve. Jack grinned at having caught her in the act of cheating these soldiers out of their hard earned cash.

Ally, however, was not so pleased. She scowled and in a sudden flash brought her left fist up and smashed Jack's nose in a violent desperate maneuver. He was caught off guard and let go for a split second before his training kicked in and he regained his focus and let loose on this cheating smuggler. Before she could get out arm's reach he grabbed ahold of her left arm and yanked her across the table. She screamed as the soldier threw her to the ground and was surrounded by Rebel troops who immediately hoisted her to her feet and restrained her. She saw the large figure of Jack with his nose trailing blood down his lip directing the smuggler to an elevated platform. He climbed up and she followed, although unwillingly and was thrown onto the mat and she got up to face the boy. She put her hands on her hips and waited for the soldier to say something.

"Well…now what soldier boy?" she taunted not really realizing what she was in for.

"Defend yourself."

She realized what those words meant when the boy threw down his hat to let his short brown hair free and put up his fists in preparation to fight. She too did put up her fists and started out, but she was in for a world of hurt. She fired off a fast punch that he sidestepped and countered with an unchallenged elbow to her chin. She stumbled back at the ferocity of the attack and finally figured out that this Rebel was not joking. So she too put her game face on, and fired off again. She launched herself at Jack with an animal ferocity that she didn't know she had and was expertly blocked in her first attempts. But when he tried for his attack she kicked out and connected with his hip and forced him back but opened herself up to attack when she attempted follow up. He threw up his right forearm and blocked the right hook she threw at his temple grabbed ahold of her arm and lifted her off the ground and slammed her into the mat and knocked the breath out of her. She knew she was in trouble when a vicious punch connected with her jaw while still being pinned to the mat by his arm. She felt the blood in her mouth and lashed out with her left arm and hit him on the cheek bone and threw him off balance and she kicked back up with her feet and got him off her and onto the ground. But the trooper was not close to done, and neither was she. She got up before he did and rushed at him to get on top and have an advantage for once in this fight. But she simply reflected off of him after he rolled to dodge and ended up on top of her again and fired off a few punches that hit her in the nose and mouth she managed to wrap her legs around his head and threw him back and she got up just in time to have him tackle her to the ground and roll of the wrestling mat. The duo hit a table next to the mat and toppled the drinks on it and spilled their exotic contents onto themselves as they continued to struggle for an edge. Bt a pair of large soldiers rushed to each of them and yanked the two quarreling youngsters apart.

"That's enough Corporal!' the voice of Sargent Woods screamed in Jack's ear as Woods and Gage restrained him while Grey held Ally back.

"What's going on here?" a distinct voice ordered.

"Commander Skywalker, sir. Corporal Ruyus caught her cheating, and she punched him and well, things escalated from there sir," Woods reported.

"Take her to the brig. Corporal, your fate is in the hands of Sargent Woods," Skywalker said calmly, stepping forward with his hands clasped behind his back.

Jack and Ally weren't paying attention, their adrenaline levels were still spiking after their ferocious fight that had gone a step too far and they continued to stare daggers at each other.

"_Attention all personnel_," the loud speakers bellowed, "_man your stations, Imperial Fleet detected. All pilots report to your briefing rooms. All defense personnel man your battle stations this is not a drill._"

**That's all for this chapter folks, thanks for reading.**

**Next Chapter Preview: The squad is sent into battle and the droids have their own temper tantrum with the Rebels. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Well something really cool happened after I posted the first chapter of this story. The good folks of Pravus Axiom, the legends of Star Wars the Old Republic extended an invitation to me to join their outstanding organization for what I showed in a single chapter. I'll be the first to say what an honor it was to be asked to join such a group. Now on to the story, here's the next chapter everyone. Enjoy.**

Chapter Two

Planet Hoth

Alarms blared loudly as Echo Base mobilized for its defense and pending evacuation in a flurry of activity. Hundreds of Rebel troops and pilots rushed to their defense posts and vehicles. But one squad, Second Squad, had to haul one very unhappy and bloodied smuggler to the brig. She resisted with all she could, kicking and yelling to get free and to her ship. The squad marched behind her and her two captors, Gage and Grey, with their weapons ready to go at a moment's notice.

"Move it you," Sargent Woods said to Ally as she dig in her heels and tried to keep from being dragged into the brig as they opened the door.

"Screw you! Let me go!" Ally yelled, being pushed in and handed to the guards.

"Lock her up boys, squad! On me, orders are defensive posts on the South Ridge and transport massing point," Woods said, leading the way at a jog with his thirteen troops right behind him.

"_The first transport is away, the first transport is away_," the speakers above their heads crackled.

"Good luck to them," Thell said, panting between breaths.

"Sarge, when are we scheduled to evacuate?" Sam asked, locking a fresh clip into his A295.

"We're on the last transport out," Woods replied, rounding a corner and squeezing past another squad on the right side that was headed to the primary defensive line.

Groans greeted this news as the mostly rookie team realized they had the least chance for survival of all the units on the base. They continued running to their posts the same way that they had come that same day when they'd been on guard duty in the same place as before. They finally charged outside where chaos reigned as the Rebels tried frantically to get hundreds of personnel and as much equipment off of this frozen Hell as they could before the Imperials overwhelmed them. The squad ran through the freshly packed snow and to the ridge where a series of slit trenches was being carved by emergency ice cutters and frozen by the sheer cold. At least two companies of Rebel infantry were taking cover in these emergency fortifications and more were charging up the hill to join them. But this wouldn't be able to hold if the primary regiments couldn't hold the line in the North.

"Move, up the hill," Jack ordered the troops.

He wasn't even given a chance to wipe off the blood on his lip the alarm was sounded so suddenly and the troops mobilized. He had his rifle in hand and his pistol strapped to his belt and had already grabbed a pair thermal detonators and an anti-vehicle concussion grenade. He had been in several battles and skirmishes at Taul, Yavin, Restuss, and Yavin. The others had seen even more combat, the farthest being Gage who was involved in the assault on Kamino in the opening stages of the war.

All of the troops ran hard to get into the trenches and join their comrades. Several other squads were piling into the thin trenches and other engineering units were expanding the system of trenches by working their way down the slope to give the troops the most firing points that they could. Numerous EWEB mounted blaster cannons were being set up but there weren't enough to defend the ridge against an all-out attack by the Imperials. Woods immediately sought out a Lieutenant who had assumed command of the troops on the ridge, trying to get some information on what they would be facing.

"What's the situation sir?" Woods asked the man in charge as he directed one of the other squads to their position

"Not good Sargent, the Imps have landed a force not too far from here, recon from our scouts is patchy at best, but we have at least three Imperial Legions coming at us. They're packing AT-AT's and AT-ST's en masse. There's a large infantry force coming our way, at least a regiment of Snowtroopers and some AT-ST's."

"They can't bring in those big AT-AT's through those hills. It's good for infantry but bad for their armor," Woods responded.

"Indeed, Woods I want your squad at the crest of the Western slope backing up third squad there. Move it, and may the Force be with you."

"Yes sir," Woods responded, saluting.

"Hold the line."

The squad moved out through the trenches at the double quick, being sure to get to their post as quickly as possible. A pair of EWEBs was already manned by men of Third Squad by the time they arrived. Jack was about to hop in his trench when he saw some commotion in the assembly area near Ally's ship, the _New Divide_.

"Open up! We need this ship!" a Rebel officer hollered at the locked vessel.

Inside, the sixteen old B1 Battle Droids owned by Ally were in chaos. Their mistress had been arrested, the Imperials were on their way to destroy the base they were in, and on top of that, they didn't know which of them was in charge!

"No, no, no, no! I'm in charge and I say we go get Mistress Ally," Mitch, BD-2048, said in his vaguely emotional robot voice.

"No, I'm in charge, and I say we wait right here for her to come back," Carpy, BD-3589, responded grabbing his weapon, an old E-5 Blaster Rifle.

"I say we kill them all!" Titan, a B-2 series Super Battle Droid piped up.

There was a long pause as the arguing B1's looked at the insane droid and then with one voice yelled.

"NO!"

"Listen, we have to do something, they have Mistress Ally and we have a way for them to get out of here, we simply trade for her release," Carpy said in a calm monotone voice.

The other droids nodded their heads at this, this was how they had always made decisions whenever Ally wasn't around, they always argued, none of them had been programmed with an officer subroutine that gave the average droid a needed intelligence boost. So they'd developed as time went on, but never really making a major jump to true leadership skills. But this show by Carpy was a needed idea in a chaotic argument that had gone on long enough.

"Hello, is this thing on?" Carpy spoke into the intercom, boosting the volume for the Rebels to hear, "We won't open up our ship. We want our Mistress back, give her back and maybe we'll let you on."

The Rebels looked around, not really knowing what the droids meant by this demand. They were simple soldiers, the officers were busy trying to get things organized and had better things to do at the current moment.

"_Imperial walkers on the ridge, all troops prepare for ground assault_," the outdoor speakers bellowed as the Rebels scrambled to get their ships loaded and ready for takeoff. Several transports had already lifted off and climbed to gain altitude and were joined by a pair of X-Wings as escort for the run through the blockade. Their engines roared and thrust the heavy ships up and out of the atmosphere to tempt fate with the assistance of the large Rebel Ion Cannon firing nonstop into orbit at any Star Destroyer that it could hit.

"Here they come!"

Every Rebel with a gun on the South Ridge took up his post and tucked their blasters and rocket launchers tight, ready to go. In the distance the Rebels could see the lurching movements of the Imperial AT-ST's as they moved toward them at a slow pace, the terrain was pretty rough and the AT-ST's were having a rough go at navigating their way toward the Rebel units in their half-finished trenches. They had none of the heavy turrets like the ones on the primary line of defense to the north, so they were reliant upon their EWEBS and rocketeers to bring down the Imperial walkers. As the gray colored walkers came closer they saw in their binoculars the Imperial infantry, Snowtroopers, the arctic counterparts of the usual Stormtroopers, although it made no difference what they called themselves, they were still the enemy. At least five hundred of them were advancing slowly in the deep snow on the hilly terrain before the Rebel line.

"_Snipers open fire_," the comm-link crackled in their ear pieces.

"That's me," Fara said with delight, popping up to the top of the trench with her DLT-20A Sniper Rifle in hand.

She immediately started firing at the best targets she could see. All Rebel snipers had standing orders to target Imperial officers and noncoms to stir chaos in the ranks of the troops they commanded. So that is exactly what Fara did, she put the crosshairs of her scope on a dark green armored man with a pistol in hand that was directing Imperial troops forward. With the squeeze of her trigger she fired a long beam of pure deadly energy that hit the man square in the chest. He flopped back into the snow with smoke rising from his chest where the rifle had burned through the man's chest armor and then through his body.

"Got him!" Fara said with delight.

"Great, now keep firing!" Jack ordered, poking his head over the lip of the trench to get a better view.

"Concentrate your fire on those walkers when they come in range!" Woods ordered the troops nearby, letting his voice carry far enough for the rest of the company to know what he said.

Then the Imperials started firing back, the AT-ST's found the range and began firing their big main cannons at the dug in Rebels. Snow went flying as water and then vapor as the hot energy particles of the cannons hit. The sound of the walkers was terrifying and the Rebel troops ducked every time they heard the awful sound of the Imperial walker firing. Some men were hit by the blasts as they ran for cover and were sent flying into the snow, their wounds cauterized by the heat of the energy weapons.

"Bring those damn walkers down!"

Grey stood up and placed his targeting scanner on the nearest AT-ST and waited for the shrill beeping of the tracker before letting loose a large rocket with a massive flare of smoke and powder. The yellow flame of the rocket thrust it forward and Grey tracked it all the way into the AT-ST's right leg. It detonated with a large explosion that buckled the metal badly and easily disabled the walker, but the "head" of the walker began turning toward Second Squad's position, and Grey aimed again, loosing another rocket before the walker fired on him. The rocket tracked right where it needed to go, it exploded and finally severed the leg of the walker and the vehicle tipped over, its other leg unable to compensate. With a crash the walker threw up a lot of powder and was down and out. But the battle was far from over.

"Incoming!" Woods yelled, ducking as a walker targeted their position and fired.

But Cormen wasn't fast enough, the bolt hit in front of his position and threw him into the air, he hit the ground hard and laid still, smoke rising from his dead body. Dee saw the death of her comrade and started to crawl out of the trench in a desperate attempt to get him back into the trench.

"Cormen, no!"

"Dee get back in here or…" Gage yelled but was cut off when a bolt of blaster fire struck Dee in the back and she fell back into the trench right on top of Dex.

"Dee!" he screamed seeing the dead body of his comrade laying against the wall of the trench.

"She's gone son," Woods said calmly, shutting the eyes of the dead trooper. He shook his head at the death of another member of his squad and stood back up brought his rifle to bear on the advancing Snowtroopers who were beginning their attack as their walker support was getting beaten off by concentrated rocket hits. Numerous Rebel EWEBS shifted their fire to this new threat and the Rebel riflemen opened up on the exposed Imperials.

Jack held his nerve as he had been trained to do and started picking off the enemy troops that had begun advancing on him and firing as they went. He fired a quick few shots that hit an Imp in the chest and saw him crumple to the ground dead. Another went to check on his comrade and fell as another shot hit him too. A full platoon of them was attacking Second Squad's immediate position and was taking a toll for their trouble. But they gave back as best they could. An EWEB gunner was hit by a blaster shot and fell back only to be replaced by another rebel who began firing quickly at the Snowtroopers and killed a few that were advancing at a full run.

Soon, the Imperials realized that their assault was not working on these Rebels, so they decided on something a little different. They primed thermal detonators and started tossing them up at the Rebels from a distance to gain an advantage over the Rebel forces who did not give an inch to their assailants. Explosions rippled across the Rebel line, but most landed too short, and they did no damage. But a few managed to roll into the Rebel trenches and the casualties inflicted were horrific. Dozens of men and women were sent over the trenches as explosions ripped through their positions and died before they realized what had happened. The Imperials advanced closer until the Rebel troopers recovered and poured blaster fire into the ragged Imperial line.

"Hold the line boys!" Woods called, firing again and hitting a Snowtrooper from twenty yards away. He shifted his fire again hitting another Imp with a quick double tap to his chest and face. He went down without a sound as Woods continued fighting.

The Imperials began falling back toward the cover of the low-lying hill outside the Rebel line of fire and the situation calmed down a bit. Wyatt, stood up to fire again at an Imperial trooper but he was hit square in the chest and collapsed back with a scream that turned the head of Jack who grabbed him and pulled him back against the trench wall. The boy was dying, and he knew it.

"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna…" was all he could get out before the darkness took him and his head hung limp as his shaking stopped and he died. Jack closed his eyes and put his hands in his lap as a show of mercy at the boy's death. He saw the stare of Xander and Thell and shook his head.

"_Imperial troops have entered the base, Imperial troops have enter…"_ the radio cut out.

"Woods, take your squad and reinforce the line in the base, buy them all the time you can," an officer ordered.

"You heard the man, let's move," Woods ordered, climbing up over the back of the trench on his belly to avoid taking fire. He was followed by the rest of the squad that copied him until they were at the reverse slope and stood up and charged down the hill as they watched several more transports lift off and escape the battle on the ground. The sounds of battle echoed from over the horizon as the bulk of the Rebel forces engaged the Imperials as best they could in the North. Hundreds of Rebel troops poured onto the transports still left as the cargo holds were loaded as fast as possible. A flight of T-47 Snow Speeders soared overhead to attack the Imperials in the South and their blaster cannons were heard tearing into the Imperial positions out of sight as the squad ran inside to help defend the base's underground tunnels. There were a great many wounded that were being toted through the tunnels as they made their way into the base to reinforce the line.

Then, the tunnels seemed to disperse as the damage became more and more apparent. Wires, boxes and ice hung from the ceiling and slumped against the wall along with a few bodies. Woods ordered his squad to take cover in a control room where his wrist scanner had pointed to for him. The squad spread out amongst the ruins of the room and took to cover and aimed their weapons at the door. The base shook with the sound of explosions and fighting raging inside and outside the base as the Imperials pressed their attack and the Rebel forces attempted to fight back futilely. Then, the doors opened up, and in marched a squad of Snowtroopers in their white armor.

"Fire!" Woods ordered and pulled the trigger on his rifle.

Bolts of energy slammed into the Snowtroopers, killing the first three who had walked in and wounding a fourth. The Imperials returned fire quickly and the fight escalated from there. Jack ducked down behind a fallen console as blaster fire hit his cover and returned fire wildly aiming and firing at the single entrance. He saw Xander firing his weapon one moment, then he saw a quartet of blaster bolts tear through his chest and he fell backwards into a pile of boxes and toppled them. He was dead before he hit the ground.

"Jack, throw a grenade while you can," Woods ordered loudly, ducking behind a pile of boxes behind him.

He nodded and reached to his belt and felt the spherical shape of the thermal detonator and pulled it off and primed it. He looked at the door to see that there were at least a half dozen Snowtroopers sill there and were taking fire from the squad, Jack tossed the grenade and ducked down quickly.

"Grenade!"

_BOOM!_

The roof caved in on the Imperials as the weapon detonated and killed them all as it exploded amongst them. Several were knocked further into the room, and one fell in front of Gage and his helmet had come off, revealing a face that was identical to his own.

Those that saw it stared at Gage and the dead Imperial for a long moment before Gage stood up and walked over to the dead body.

"I'm sorry, brother."

"Gage?" Woods asked.

"They're clones sir," Gage said, "judging by this man's armor, and his face, I'd say he's one of the first clones. Just like me. I'm one of them, a clone trooper, my designation is CT-7790, a trooper of the 501st Legion, well formerly anyways."

"You're a clone? An Imperial?" Thell yelled.

"No! I'm a clone, loyal to the Galactic Republic and freedom! My brothers have been led astray, and the only way for the Republic to return is for me to fight my brothers and show them the right path."

"Okay Gage," Woods said quietly, "we need to move men, and the evacuation code signal's been given. We're getting out of here."

The squad returned its focus to the moment at hand and readied their weapons once more, they weren't done yet. Woods led them out of the room and into the collapsing tunnel past the door. The squad moved as fast as it could until it reached a corner where they heard blaster fire. Woods peaked around and saw several Snowtroopers blasting away at a locked door in an attempt to break through. Several dead Rebels lay against the wall and sprawled out on the floor where they'd made their last stand.

"Sarge, this is the brig," Nester whispered, "they're jail-breaking our prisoners."

"No, there are no prisoners in there except for that smuggler."

"We could use her, her ship is still out there and her droids have locked it down until we return her. I'd say that this is an ample opportunity for us to get out of here," Sam observed.

"Agreed," Woods grabbed his last thermal detonator and primed it, "Fire in the hole."

The Snowtroopers didn't realize they were under attack until it was too late. They were killed as the weapon blew up in their midst sending their blackened bodies against the icy wall where the heated ice melted onto their bodies. The Rebel squad rushed around the corner weapons raised and ran to the door where, hopefully, someone was still alive.

"Open up, Rebels," Jack yelled through the door.

The door hissed open and Jack had a familiar pistol aimed at his head with a frightened young woman holding it on the other end. She lowered the blaster as she saw that her rescuers were Rebels and not Imperials.

"I would say I was glad to see you if you had come a bit sooner," she gloated, walking out of the room.

"Later, come on we need to get out of here. Your ship's still here…" Gage was interrupted as he continued.

"Wait, my ship's still here, come on then, we need to get out of this Hell hole!" Ally said quickly moving past the Rebels, but in the wrong direction.

"Wrong way," Jack said, watching her turn around.

"Oh, yeah. Maybe you should lead the way."

"Yeah, we should."

The group turned and jogged down the tunnel past the boxes, wreckage and bodies of numerous Imperials and Rebels until blaster fire erupted from behind them. Rat turned to fire but he was blown off of his feet by a powerful blast from a blaster held by a Snowtrooper. The squad took cover, and Ally pulled out her powerful pistol and started firing. The trooper who shot Rat was hit by her powerful weapon and dropped to the ground hard. Fara ran, grabbed him and dragged him behind cover. Rat gasped as he fought for life, blood pouring from his mouth and he tried to get out some words as Fara tried to do anything she could to help but nothing she did worked. Rat gave one last ragged gasp and slipped away in Fara's arms.

"Fara, run!" Woods called, "He's dead, move it soldier!" he grabbed her by her arm and threw her back as the rest of the squad broke and ran.

"We're almost there, just a little bit further…" Woods yelled as a blaster bolt hit above his head.

The Rebels turned every so often to fire and occasionally got lucky and hit an Imperial and killed a few that way. Ally kept her pistol turned behind herself and fired a few random blasts that hit close enough to force the enemy troops to duck. They rounded one last corner and saw the open hangar of their destination and ran for dear life. But that meant that they would have to go across open ground, and that would be extremely dangerous. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, running outside into a furious running battle as the Rebel troops on the ridge fell back under intense pressure from the Imperials and were gunned down as they retreated down the slope. A pair of transports fired their small cannons at whatever they could in a desperate attempt to defend the retreating Rebels from certain doom while they tried to retreat onto the transports. But, off to the side, the _New Divide_ stood defiantly with its Battle Droid complement firing the ship's cannons at the Imperial troops while the two B2 Super Battle Droids, painted in their chrome along with a red "X" across their chest fired alongside the ramp into the ship.

"There she is, come on!" Ally yelled charging ahead.

As they exited the hangar they saw the unmistakable shadow of a massive ship descending down through the clouds. An Imperial II class Star Destroyer had its guns sighted on the transports and would have its sights locked on the _New Divide_ if they didn't hurry.

"Get aboard! Get…" Woods's order was cut short by a green sniper rifle beam striking him in the back, and then another hit his arm and he fell to the ground.

"No!" Jack yelled turning and firing at the Imperial responsible, shooting a half dozen times into the white chest armor until the trooper fell forward into the snow. Gage and Grey joined him, Gage firing without any mercy at his own brothers while Grey fired his last rocket into the hangar, blowing up several canisters, and killing a full Imperial squad.

"Corporal get out of here!" Woods struggled to get out, fighting the sensations coursing through his body, "that's an order. Get out of here!" Woods pushed him back, grasping his pistol in one last act, firing it with all he had. Several troopers fell to the man's shots as they advanced out of the hangar.

Jack and the others turned and ran, not looking back until they were at the foot of the gangway. The Supers had fallen back into the ship and the rest of the squad was already aboard. The ship hummed and vibrated as the engines activated and began to lift off. Jack looked to the transports where the Rebels had fled to and saw a massive explosion strike one of the transports. The Star Destroyer had opened fire, and there was nothing that could be done. The gangway withdrew into the ship as Jack watched his mentor fight to his last breath until the man was surrounded and the hatch mercifully shut, preventing him from watching Sargent Woods die.

The New Divide accelerated up and away from the slaughter that the Star Destroyer was creating and climbed as fast her engines could make her. The ordeal on the planet was over, half of Jack's squad was dead, and they were finally off of that frozen nightmare. But when the ship shook Jack looked up to see several Battle Droids rushing to their stations. They weren't done yet.

**I couldn't help but cry as I finished this up with the death of Sargent Woods, and the destruction of the transports and several hundred Rebels. It was tough to write about that much death but Hoth was a disaster for the Rebellion so I took that as far as I dared. Anyway, thanks for reading this, and please review.**

**Next Chapter Preview: Time to break the blockade**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here we are again for Chapter 3. I hope you all liked the last chapter because this is going to be another action packed excitement driven chapter. Enjoy.**

**Chapter Three**

Orbit Around Hoth

The _New Divide_ shook as it fell under the crosshairs of a flight of TIE Fighters as it attempted to escape into the depths of space and flee from the disastrous fall of the Rebel base on the ice planet below. The devastated Rebel troopers on the ship had just been through Hell. They'd seen half their squad mates die before their eyes, including their CO Sergeant Woods, who'd gone down fighting to his last breath to buy them the time needed to escape the bombardment of the massing point for the last Rebel transports. But his sacrifice may have been in vain. The _New Divide_ had to accomplish one last feat, run the Imperial blockade and escape into space.

"Get on those guns!" the loudspeaker bellowed with the sound of Ally's voice.

Jack snapped himself out of it and yanked the sitting figure of Dex onto his feet and yelled at him and the rest of his, which he now realized, command.

"Move it Trooper! We're not out of this yet," he said, throwing his rifle over his shoulder.

"Imperial fighters incoming," a droid's voice called out over the intercom.

Jack charged through the ship with its white halls and black floor being used by other droids and astromech droids that were scurrying across the floor that was lined with boxes that weren't unloaded during the _New Divide's_ time in Echo Base. The squad split up, running toward the gun turrets and in Jack's and Gage's case, towards the bridge. The ship shook as its main battery of lazer turrets and the few turbo lasers began firing at the unseen enemy that fired into the corvette's shields as it rose towards the emptiness of space. Jack raced past the two B2 Super Battle droids standing guard at the entrance to the bridge and ran into the small bridge that was actually fairly empty with about half the needed personnel at the stations. B1's sat at the scanners and engine readouts and ran through the ship's systems and scanner readings as fast as they could. In the very front was Ally in the left chair with her controls in front of her while no one was in the chair to the right. Jack could see the thinning atmosphere just outside the window with a squadron of TIE fighters bearing down on their ship, making strafing runs and Jack also began seeing the red laser fire of the _New Divide's_ point defenses lashing out at the attackers. The shields flared as a TIE fired its cannons at the bridge of the ship and one of the droid behind Ally spoke up.

"Shields down to eighty three percent."

"I see it! Would you guys take down those fighters!" she yelled as the TIE soared by the bridge.

"Need some help?" Jack said, taking a seat.

"What I need is for your boys to take out those damn TIE's!" Ally said as a TIE flew past the ship and took a hit and had its port wing severed and the ship went spiraling down.

The _New Divide_ continued its ascent into the upper atmosphere with the TIE squadron pursuing them all along the way. Jack took his station at the copilot seat and helped Ally coordinate a jump into Hyperspace that would take them away from Hoth and to somewhere safe. Gage ran to the back where the droids continued to man their stations and perform their duty as best they could. The ship shuddered as it took another hit from the TIE's pursuing them. Alarms blared as the ship's engine block began registering damage.

"The engines just took a direct hit, we won't be able to make the jump unless the Hyperdrive is fixed," Ally stood to go and fix her ship but Jack held her down.

"One of my men is a Corellian who worked on ships like this one as an engineer on a smuggling ship before he joined up. He can fix it, we need you on the controls," Jack insisted, receiving a nod from Ally. Jack tuned to Gage and nodded, "Get Nester working on that Hyperdrive!"

"Got it," Gage turned and ran out of the bridge to order Nester.

"I hope your man can get that Hyperdrive fixed or we're going to join your sergeant."

Gage charged through the ship at full tilt until he rounded a corner and hustled into the control center where he found Nester at the controls of one of the turbolasers with a droid seated next to him and another behind them manning a power readout that handled the power being channeled into the powerful weapons. Gage ran up behind the moving chair where Nester was yelling like a maniac as he shot at the TIE fighters on his HUD being displayed on the screen before him.

"Nester! The hyperdrive just took a direct hit, we need you to fix it!" Gage hollered trying to get the man's attention.

"What? But I'm having fun!" Nester said, looking back with a glimmer in his eye.

"If you don't go we're not going to be able to make the jump! Now go!"

"But…"

"Move it trooper!" Gage said yanking the nut case out of the chair and taking his place as Nester protested.

Nester rolled onto his back and scrambled to his feet, running toward the exit and rounded the corner and charged toward the engine room. He about ran over a pair of astromech droids that came out of the hallway to his left. He dodged and fell and knocked one of them to the ground, the droid chirped angrily at him as he got up and ran off.

"My bad!"

Nester ran in through the door and into the loud engine room that had several droids working quietly on the engines and immediately climbed a ladder as the ship shook with continuing punishment from the unrelenting Imperial fighters. He found the main control panel for the engines and the hyperdrive and got to work. He quickly pinpointed the exact extent of the damage and reported his findings on the intercom button next him.

"Engineering to bridge!"

"What is it Nester?" the voice of Corporal Ruyus came on the buzzer.

"Hey Corporal, I didn't know you were the pilot," he said, changing the conversation in the blink of an eye.

"He's not the pilot!" the voice of Ally boomed angrily, "Now what is it?"

"Oh yeah, the old girl's fuel line just sprang a leak, I'm gonna have to reroute your fuel through your back-up lines. And your primary power coupling has been wrecked, I'll need to reroute power through those back-up lines."

"Do it!"

"Copy that," Nester said taking off his hat to allow his dirty blonde hair to hang and leaning his weapons on the nearest console. He cracked his knuckles and opened up the nearest equipment locker to get what he needed. He snatched up a fully stocked tool belt and hooked it onto his waist. With one last roll of his sleeves he was ready to get to work, "Let's do this baby."

Nester slid down the ladder, knocking a droid off of it as he went down and landed next to him.

"Hey!"

"Sorry buddy, gotta go save our asses," Nester said, getting up and running over to an access hatch that allowed him to get into the ship's engine core to effect repairs.

The tiny hatch opened up and allowed him entry. It was lit, thankfully and several of the main power conduits glowed dully as they channeled raw power to the engines and other critical systems, fuel lines vibrate as they too fed into the oversized engines of the Corellian speed demon. As he crawled into the small space one of the droids leaned down to watch what he was doing and asked him a question.

"Do you know what you're doing?" he asked.

Nester responded as the hatch closed behind him.

"Not really!"

Meanwhile, the bridge hummed as the New Divide worked its way into space and was confronted by the full might of the Imperial Fleet above Hoth. A dozen Star Destroyers formed a tight blockade that was being assaulted by the Rebel fighters that had risen to defend their transports from the Imperial attackers. The scanners went crazy trying to pick up the numerous fighters that dueled with each other and the bombers that targeted the main ships. The TIE fighters attacking the _New Divide_ had been thinned out to just three of the twelve fighters that had originally jumped them. They now formed up in front of the _New Divide_ and formed up for another attack run on the ship's bridge. But as they began firing they were all torn apart by a cloud of red laser fire. Just as the bridge crew was about to congratulate their gunners a squadron of six X-Wings soared past the ship and took up formation in front of the _New Divide_.

"Thought you could use some help," the lead X-Wing hailed them.

"Took you guys long enough, stay with us until we're clear for the jump to…" but Jack was cut off when the leading three X-Wings were hit from above by a flurry of green blaster fire and mushroomed into brief explosions that stood out against the inky black of space.

"I'm hit, I'm hit…" the comm's crackled as the last X-Wing in the formation was hit and spiraled out of sight pursued by a trio of TIE fighters.

The last two X-Wings split up with two TIE fighters right on their tail. Ally jerked the New Divide to the right to get the ship out of the line of fire. Jack stared at the chaotic medley of fighters dueling, until the green dots of the X-Wings winked out as the TIE's destroyed them. The New Divide now entered the firing solutions of the larger Imperial ships, and the incoming fire began coming at them from a single Star Destroyer who had just come around.

**Star Destroyer **_**Black Night**_

"Captain, a Rebel blockade runner has broken orbit and is accelerating toward us," a sensor operator called out from the large pit on the bridge of the ship.

"Reroute power from aft shields to primary ion cannons. All batteries open fire," Captain Nero, commander of the Star Destroyer Black Night ordered, having his orders obeyed quickly as he saw his main guns fire at the small dark gray corvette.

"Captain, the Rebel ship is opening fire."

"Very well, increase power to the forward shields."

Nero watched the incoming fire of the small corvette splash across his ship's powerful shields and chuckled at how vain the attempt was. He watched the quick vessel swerve its way toward them, firing nonstop at his fighter screen and successfully downed the equivalent of a squadron when his TIE Bombers made an unsuccessful attack run. He had to admire the skill of the Rebel captain as the ship kept up its evasive maneuvers dodging the majority of his ion cannons and turbolasers and kept drawing closer. He quickly saw an opportunity for a capture instead of a kill as the Rebel made its intention of going under his ship clearer.

"Prepare tractor beam and scramble a boarding party. That ship is attempting to go under us," Nero ordered his hangar master and marine commander.

"Yes sir," the Marine Captain, a Jango Fett clone known as Rex, responded.

"Tractor Beam ready Captain," the man at the station controlling the device piped up, ready for a capture which was a real accomplishment when it came to Corellian Corvette.

"Lock onto that ship as soon as you get the chance Lieutenant."

"Yes sir."

Nero watched the ship closer and he began to see something of a pattern on the ship. Red stripes in an arrow-like shape. It looked familiar, he searched his mind quickly and found a suppressed memory that he'd always kept ahold of just in case. He knew this ship. It was a year ago, he was Captain of the _Black Night_ on her trials as the newest ship in the fleet. His ship was cruising past the breaking yards where a numerous ships of all types, to name a few there were numerous_ Venator_ class Star Destroyers from the Clone Wars, a few former CIS ships, a massive _Lucrehulk_ class Battleship used by the Trade Federation as its primary warship, and hundreds of confiscated Corvettes of every size and type. His ship was moving over the graveyard when one of the impounded ships, a Corellian Corvette roared to life and smashed its way out of the shipyard past the _Black Night_ and patrolling _Tartans_ and TIE's. The Black Night had been caught in a large chase as Nero ordered his ship to pursue as another Star Destroyer tasked with protecting the station came at the corvette at full speed. His ship and the other Star Destroyer didn't see on another until it was too late. They smashed into one another head on, hooking into each other and shredding their inner compartments and killing countless crewmembers. It was an embellishment that stained his record and prevented every single promotion he'd been eligible for.

"Zoom in on that ship," Nero ordered, turning to the sensor station in the pit, "I want that vessel's name."

"Yes sir, one moment," the man adjusted his equipment zooming in on the ship as their own guns fired as fast as they could.

"Hurry up!" Nero shouted.

"I'm trying sir. My sensors are being jammed by scramblers from the Rebel ship."

"I want that ship's name!"

"I have it, it's…the _New Divide_ Captain."

Nero straightened up, allowing the poor junior officer to catch his breath and get back to monitoring his sensors. This was the ship that humiliated him that day, and he now had it dead to rights. All he needed to do was get it caught in his tractor beam and it was finished and the honor of his ship, his crew, and his own pride and honor would be restored. The reign of this rogue ended now.

_**New Divide**_

"Star Destroyer bearing down on us!" Jack called, seeing the behemoth loom over them firing its main batteries furiously at them.

"I know!" Ally yelled back, "they're moving their fighters away from us. That's not good!"

"Why?" Jack asked curious.

"It means that they're prepping a tractor beam and they don't want their TIE's to be caught in the beam.

"That is bad!"

Just then the _New Divide_ shook and rocked violently. They were caught in the tractor beam, and being pulled into the gaping hole beneath the Star Destroyer that was more often than not the last place a captured vessel went into as a free ship. Ally knew this, but she had a plan, it all hinged on her Hyperdrive.

"Does your man have that Hyperdrive fixed yet?" Ally demanded.

"I'll check, he'd better."

Jack trned to the comm on the control panel and pushed the button, he prayed to the Force that their nut-case Nester had pulled through.

"Engineering, report!" Jack ordered.

"Hey ya Corporal, almost done! I just need to reroute power through the secondary couplings," Nester replied, sounding quite cheery.

"Hurry it up!" Ally said turning off the connection, "Prepare to deploy charges!"

"Charges?" Jack asked, watching the growing hangar get even bigger as the New Divide grew nearer.

"Sonic charges, this isn't my first time running from the Imperials," Ally responded, "Deploy in three, two, one!"

On the top of the ship, a modified flare tube ejected a small cylinder the size of a small torpedo and it immediately flew right up into the large gaping hangar bay and right at the unwary Imperials. It was so small that by the time the Imperials noticed it, it was far too late. It rotated as it armed and then it collapsed in on itself as the firing mechanism detonated the powerful weapon. An extremely powerful concussion wave sliced out at an angle. The sonic charge's effect was immediate; the weak belly shielding of the hangar blunted the blow considerably, but it was not near enough. The ship shook and explosions rippled across the hull and sliced into the hangar decks that held the large ground vehicle used in planetary invasions. Dozens of minor compartment were exposed to outer space and vented their life saving atmosphere and the hundreds of crewmembers that worked in those sectors. Explosions rippled across the area as the Star Destroyers damage control systems snapped to action, ray shieldng the damaged sections and venting atmosphere in a controlled blow-out to put out the fires in critical sections. Fire billowed from the damaged Star Destroyer and the lights flickered and blinked in the damaged section. The gash in the hull armor was small in comparison to the damage inside the ship but it was enough to knock out the deflector shields and the tractor beam that held the _New Divide_ captive.

Ally turned her attention to getting her ship out of the line of fire before the Star Destroyer regained control of its systems and turned on her ship again. She flicked on a channel to the Engineering dck and saw the camera angle that showed the main control panel behind a droid that responded to the hail. Another droid stood at the control panel reading out figures on the repairs and their effect on the situation. But Nester was nowhere to be found.

"Are we good to go?" Ally asked hoping for good news.

"Almost Mistress, the Rebel engineer is almost done."

All of a sudden she heard a loud whooping noise that sounded like Nester emanate from off screen and she saw the blast wave from Nester's handy work and saw the man himself go flying across the screen and slam into the droid at the controls. He was covered in smoke and blackened with soot and grime. The droid got up and saw the green lights of the Hyperdrive's systems powering up.

"Awesome!" Nester yelled in excitement.

"We're ready to make the jump Mistress!" the droid hollered.

"Go," Ally ordered her Navigator in the back of the bridge who quickly plotted their course and pulled the safety on the Hyperdrive.

Ally shut her eyes and yanked back on the lever to launch them into Hyperspace.

**Star Destroyer**_** Black Night **_

"No!" Nero yelled seeing the ship he'd waited for a year to find escaped into Hyperspace.

"Sir, damage report. Heavy damage to the hangar decks and a total loss of the holding bay for the ground vehicles. We've lost the tractor beam, most of our TIE reserves, including their pilots, and we have no way of recovering our fighters without the use of a dry-dock to repair the hangar bay…" Nero's young XO reported.

"Is the Hyperdrive functional?" he demanded.

"Yes sir it is, but the damage is…"

"Then set a pursuit course, maximum speed!"

"Captain, but our orders…"

Nero snapped his service blaster from out of his holster in the blink of an eye and pointed it at his XO's nose. He had lost it, the ship and its daring but pestilent Captain that could redeem him and his ship. He still felt that he had to go after the infernal ship even if he disobeyed orders to do it.

"Follow that ship, Commander!" he hissed.

"Yes sir," the young man replied weakly but defiantly, helmsman set a pursuit course, maximum speed!"

The massive Star Destroyer turned as its massive engines glowed and hummed, readying itself for the jump into Hyperspace. Then, in a flash of sheer power the engines flared and the Star Destroyer accelerated into the void of Hyperspace, Hell-bent on destroying the Rebels aboard the _New Divide_.

**Well, there we are, Chapter Three. Thanks for reading, and please review so I know what I can do better.**

**Next Chapter Preview: Where do they go next? **


	4. Chapter 4

**I know it's been a while but here it is, Chapter Four of the story, I really don't have much to say about it right now, I'm in college now and so I really have to prioritize my time and this just won't come up to the top of the list, maybe on weekends I'll try and get you guys a chapter, but no promises. But it's here now, enjoy.**

Chapter Four

Hyperspace

New Divide

All was quiet aboard the New Divide as she soared through hyperspace after narrowly avoiding being captured or destroyed over Hoth. The majority of the ship's droids were stowed away, charging up for their next shifts while their backups took over for the tired and worn human crew, especially the survivors of Second Squad. These men and one woman had been through hell, and were in dire need of sleep and private time to cope with the fifty percent casualties their squad alone had sustained. They all bedded down in some of the crew quarters being used as storage for Ally's cargo of Rebel supplies, uniforms, armor, and weapons. Being a ship designed to carry a crew quite a bit larger than their squad they were each able to have a room to themselves so they were all able to come to grips with the magnitude of their near death experience alone. But two of the human crew were not having their moment of meditation yet.

Jack and Ally were still on the bridge arguing about what to do and where to go. They were both Hel-bent on what they wanted to do, and neither would back down. Jack wanted to rendezvous with the Rebel Fleet, Ally wanted to lay low at a quiet space port for a little while so they were both at a crossroads. Something would have to snap.

"I'm telling you we need to rendezvous with the Fleet! The Alliance needs these supplies," Jack argued, still trying to convince the young smuggler to see things his way.

"Well too bad, it's my ship. And I'm the captain and I say we lay low and enjoy life for a while. I've already set a course for a safe haven I know about. I have a few friends there that can put us up for a few weeks."

"We don't have a few weeks. The Rebel Alliance…"

"What makes you think I care?! I'm only in this for the money!" Ally snapped back, surpriseing and angering the Rebel Corporal.

"You smugglers are all the same, why should I expect you to understand something like a greater cause than yourself?" jack hissed, turning and walking out of the bridge.

Jack stormed out of the bridge in a fury and grabbed his rifle from off the rack where other rifles were stowed for the droids. He walked out of the door that led to the outside hallway and walked straight towards Gage's quarters and ran into several of the surviving rookies, Fara and Dex. They were dressed in Rebel urban combat uniforms. Complete with the matching hard shelled helmets and gray and brown fatigues with a munitions belt and back pack. Jack couldn't say that he wasn't surprised that they were dressed in those fatigues, this ship was carrying Rebel infantry equipment.

"You two, find the others and have them meet in store room number three in ten minutes."

"Sir?" Fara asked, a bit curious.

"Did I stutter trooper?" Jack threatened.

"No sir," Fara replied, a bit intimidated at how threatening and angry her CO looked.

"Then move it."

Jack continued on to the room he knew Gage had settled down in and passed several droids on the way taking inventory of the ship's contents in the halls and rooms. But before he found Gage's room he found Gage, talking with Sam and Grey. Jack walked up to them and interrupted their talk as he stormed up beside Gage.

"Get into an urban uniform and meet me in store room number three in ten minutes. We've got a situation."

"Yes sir, where are the uniforms?" Gage asked.

"They're in store room two, they told me earlier boss," Sam replied.

"Alright go," Jack ordered, "and bring your weapons."

"Yes sir, come on you two."

The three men walked off to get into a more comfortable uniform while Jack headed off to get ahold of Nester who was still fiddling around in the engine room. Jack also made a mental note grabbing a schematic of the New Divide for what he had in plan as he walked the hall single mindedly. In a few short minutes he was in the engine room where Nester was nowhere in sight. Jack looked around and called for the nut case.

"Nester! Where are you?"

"Down here!" a faint voice called out from underneath the main generator that sparked raw energy. Jack looked closely to see Nester's boots were poking out from under the access hatch that had a no entry sign right above it.

Jack shook his head and walked over to the half hidden nut who seemed to do everything the experts said not to do with engines and generators.

"Nester, head over to store room two and gear up in urban fatigues and then meet me in store room three for…"

"What?! Sorry Corporal can't hear ya!"

Jack growled to himself and bent down and yanked out the mechanic quickly who yelped in response to being pulled out of the dangerous space. Nester's face was grease smeared, and his dirty blonde hair was fuzzy after being exposed to raw energy down in the man hole.

"Hey!"

"Get geared up in urban gear in store room two and meet me in store room three. You have ten minutes!"

"Alright, alright, jeez Corporal I'm goin'."

Jack watched the engineer walk out, and turned his attention towards the main control interface on the engine command floor. The only places where the full blueprints of a ship could be found were the bridge, which was heavily guarded by Ally's droids so that was out of the question, and the main engine room where the chief engineer of a ship like this controlled the ship's systems and could potentially control the ship itself in the event the bridge were compromised. So Jack walked up to the main deck and made sure the engine room was clear of droids and he was alone. With a few deft taps on the interface Jack accessed the ship's data core and located what he was looking for a moment later. The ship's schematics, complete with access points and security systems, were all at his fingertips. So Jack plugged in his wrist pad into the data port and downloaded all the relevant data. The data was all Jack needed so he shut off the console and strapped his wrist pad in its rightful place and walked out.

He walked out and fast walked to the number two store room so he too could get into some more comfortable fatigues and shed the hot winter uniform that was great for planes like Hoth but was not exactly designed for ships. Jack didn't have to walk far, the door hissed open and he walked into the large interior of the cargo hold where numerous boxes were being stowed away. He immediately saw that the markings on the boxes said what was inside and he began to sort through the uniforms he found and pretty soon he had what he needed. I a few minutes he was wearing the classic gray and brown combat gear worn by Rebel infantry in urban conditions. He easily put on the patterned fatigues and pants and filled up the black combat vest with all the essentials the equipment came with; power packs for weapons, thermal detonators, medical packs, flares, flashlights, and binoculars. Jack also found a stack of backpacks that he was pleased to see had all the essentials already stowed away. So as he turned around to join his squad he caught sight of a box that had the words: "Light Armor" written on it.

Jack smiled at this prospect, armor was a rare commodity for the Rebellion, only the heavy Vanguard Divisions had been issued armor being the best units in the Rebel Army. So Jack grabbed a pack of the complete armor pieces and strapped them on. The suit included shoulder pads, a chest/back plate that went under a combat vest, leg plates, and combined wrist plates/tac pads. The pieces were all in urban patterns with brown, gray, and black smeared over the protective plates. The armor was a copy of the old clone Model One suit but was trimmed down with less pieces, lighter weight, and could be placed over standard uniforms. Also in the box were numerous blast glasses with built in HUD's for easier Command and Control of units that happened to have them. Jack turned it on, seeing an orange glow as the HUD activated and linked to any other devices of the same type within range. Jack was ready to go, now it was time to brief the squad and put the plan into action.

Jack walked out and into the hall and across the hall into the adjacent room where the rest of the Rebel troopers were waiting for him. He entered to see them standing or sitting on or near boxes of equipment talking quietly. They all stood up immediately as he walked in, the rookies snapping to attention and the veterans who knew him standing in a relaxed stance. Jack waved down the rookies who relaxed but were still a bit jumpy around him after their run in with him in the hallway earlier. They had their weapons with them, rifles draped over their shoulders and pistols in their holsters. In the case of Grey he'd actually adopted a rifle and had his rocket launcher next to him on top of a crate of supplies.

"Nice armor sir," Grey said, observing the familiar look.

"There's a whole crate filled with them in the room next door, along with these," Jack said, pointing at the glowing glasses on his face.

"Sweet," Nester observed.

"What's this all about sir?" Gage asked, shoving the leaning Nester aside.

"Captain Valderam won't take us to the rendezvous point. She's more concerned with saving her own skin than helping the Rebellion, even if that means getting paid to run supplies to us. She said she's sent the ship toward a safe haven she knows about and will lay low for a few weeks," Jack reported distastefully.

"Two weeks?!" Gage said, aware of the implications, "Rebel forces are supposed to rendezvous in a week."

"I know," Jack said, taking a deep breath, "that's why we're seizing the ship."

There was an awkward moment of silence among the small gaggle of troopers as they came to grips with what exactly that implied. They were committing mutiny, the highest form of crime one can commit aboard a ship without prior reason. But this counted as a good reason to the assembled Rebels who knew that they needed to be at the rendezvous point or they would be left behind when the assembled Rebel Fleet took off again for destinations unknown and left to fend for themselves. It was a standard security measure to prevent captured Rebel ships from being used to compromise the whole of the Rebel Fleet.

"So how do we do that?" Fara quietly asked.

"Yeah, there are dozens of droids aboard," Dex responded, "They won't exactly like us taking over their owner's ship."

"Hmph, those clankers are no problem. We can easily over power them on an individual basis," Gage spoke out, "It's the Supers w need to worry about."

"Gage, you're a clone, right?" Jack asked, "So you fought against droids like these in the Clone Wars?"

"Yes sir, I know those droids inside out. I know how to deal with them."

"Good, because us taking over hinges on us being able to disable those droids without damaging them."

"And Captain Valderam?" Grey asked, a bit curious as to how their leader planned on taking her out of the picture.

"Leave her to me."

"Ooh, getting' a little close to the lady are we?" Sam teased.

"Seriously?" Fara scoffed, holding her hands on her hips.

"I'm not going to seduce her trooper, I'm just gonna hit her with this," Jack said, patting his rifle, "Your weapons have a powerful stun setting, use it."

"And mine?" Fara asked holding up her powerful sniper rifle.

"You have a nonlethal firing setting as well, just aim for the legs. Of course sniper rifles don't have a stun setting. Grab a rifle like the rest of us," Gage replied.

"Sir, how do we disable all the droids at the same time?" Dex asked, a bit nervous, his face showing how nervous he was.

"You're good with computer systems right?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Then I have a job for you soldier. You get to hack the droids and disable them."

"Actually sir," Gage said, "That can't be done without one of the droids. And if we capture one it'll sound the alarm as soon as it's compromised. The best we could do is capture the bridge, along with one oor two droids and upload the shutdown code from there. Because they'll come right to the disturbance, with the big Supers leading the way. We'll need something to keep them from getting at us with, leverage."

"Ally, she's programmed those droids to be absolutely loyal to her. If we capture her, they'll back off long enough for us to shut them down all at once," Sam sounded off, optimistic at the plan.

"Okay, let's do it."

"Alright, get geared up, we move in five minutes."

Meanwhile on the bridge, Ally was leaning back taking a quick look at a book she had started but had never really gotten around to finishing. It was a favorite past time of hers, and she made an effort to make time for reading the latest books and novels that she could get her hands on. She was so engrossed in the book that she didn't hear the door hiss open and see her droid Carpy and a changed Corporal Ruyus walk in. She finally noticed he was there when he was a few feet away from her and had his arms across his chest waiting for her to notice. She slowly looked up from her pad and noted he was there and he could say whatever it was he there to say.

"Well I see you and your boys have found the armor I was carrying to your Rebellion," she said, a bit irritated.

"Yeah we did. Listen there's something I need to tell you…" Jack began.

"Don't tell me you're apologizing," Ally smirked, "'cause you don't seem to be the apologetic type."

"I'm not apologizing, Dex picked this up on the comm channel before we jumped into Hyperspace."

Jack pushed a button on the console behind her and stepped back so that the recording could play. On the screen behind the pilot and co-pilot chairs flashed an image of a single person, it was of young man about her age, maybe younger. He was dressed in the white uniform Jack and the others had been wearing hen Hoth was assaulted. It was torn up badly, blood was all over it and the man's face. His expression looked tired, afraid even. The background of the image was of a single room, wrecked beyond recognition. The image was of the comm station in Echo Base.

"All Rebel units, this Echo Base, the base has fallen, I repeat the base has fallen, Imperial forces have invaded and taken over most of the facility. Retreat, I repeat retreat…" an explosion rocked the camera and the man was hit with a pile of snow and ice but remained on his feet, "we're all that's left. The Imperials have got us cornered, we're almost out of ammo. Get out while you can! Rendevous with the Fleet! Get outta here!"

Then a massive sheet of flame enveloped the right corner of the screen and the man turned his weapon back toward the blown up entrance where Ally could see that there were numerous Imperials storming the man's position. Three Rebel troopers rushed forward but two were instantly killed by precise blasts and slammed into the ground while the last two men fought on, taking several of the Imp's with them. But when one of the men took a blast to the chest the other man dropped to his knees and grabbed his comrade who had been mortally wounded. He didn't even see the squad of Snowtroopers surround him and finish both he and his friend off with brutal efficiency from point blank. His screams were all that were audible as the recording ended. Ally was dumb struck, why had he showed her this?

"You see? That is why we need this cargo, this ship, and much more," Jack quietly said.

"I can't, you don't understand."

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this," Jack sighed, pushing the button on a small sphere in his hand, making it glow a ghostly blue as it charged up.

"What's that thing?" Carpy asked, but as he leaned down to get a good look at it the sphere pulsated and Carpy and the other droids on the bridge collapsed to the ground. In that instant Jack brought his rifle to bear, aiming it right in Ally's face and forcing her to the back of her chair, and preventing her from grabbing her blaster pistol that was in its holster on the back of her chair.

"It's a Droid Popper, as Gage calls it," Jack said, "works great on droids of all kinds. We use it on the Imperials' Dark Troopers. And apparently they work on your old clankers."

"You bastard!" she yelled at him, but didn't move with the Rebel's rifle against her chest.

"I'm sorry," Jack replied, then brought his mic to his mouth and spoke, "Bridge is secure move in."

Just like that the rest of the Rebel soldiers rushed into the Bridge, weapons raised and the scrawny Rebel among the group, Dex immediately knelt next to one of the disabled droids and pulled out a hand held computer and started fiddling with it. She watched him quickly type in a few commands and then she saw all the droids on the bridge flash their eyes and then blink red and shut off.

"Done."

"That was quick," Sam noted, relaxing his guard.

"What did you just do?" Ally asked, deeply concerned.

"I shut down the rest of the ship's Battle Droids," Dex replied, getting up and stowing his scanner.

"The ship's ours, Captain. Take her to her quarters, lock the door," Jack ordered, yanking her roughly from her seat.

But Ally was not going down without one Hell of a fight, using the force of Jack pulling her up she propelled herself up and out of her seat and threw a right handed fist into his jaw. Jack took the blow full on, his glasses were sent flying and he collapsed to the deck, dazed by the sudden and vicious assault. The rest of the team saw Ally grab for her pistol and took action to prevent her from doing so. They had their weapons set to stun, but Ally more than likely wouldn't. As she pulled on the exotic pistol's handle to pull it out of the holster a blue wavy blast hit her in the legs from close range. Gage had his rifle ready and aimed at her face when she turned onto her back to see who had just stunned her. Her legs were effectively useless, being hit with such a powerful stun blast they were completely numb and unresponsive. Several other Rebel troopers ran to join gage in aiming their weapons at her in a much more alert manner after she had assaulted their unofficial CO. She was grabbed by the largest of the armored Rebels, Gage and Grey, and lifted to her feet to face Jack who had managed to get to his feet and was wiping off some blood that had come out of his mouth through a cut in his lip.

"I know this sucks Ally, but the fact of the matter is we need to regroup with the rest of our unit…" Jack tried to calmly explain.

"Or what's left of it," she spat.

Jack's face turned dark with the insult to his unit, his family, but he knew she was right. They were probably all that was left of the 8th Battalion. Out of a unit of 1,000 battle-hardened patriots there were six left. They weren't even capable of forming a squad, much less being worthy of being called a Battalion.

"You had better shut your mouth before I shove you in an escape pod and leave you at the mercy of the Imperials," Jack leaned forward and hissed in her ear, "And you saw what they do to us when we're defenseless.

Ally bit her tongue, remembering the chilling footage of the last stand of those Rebels of Echo Base's comm center. She knew that Jack wouldn't do it, but he had made his point and she conceded that fact.

"Take her to her quarters, and post two guards to make sure she stays inside until we arrive at the rendezvous point."

"Roger that," Gage said, pointing to the two rookies, "You two, follow us, you have the job of babysitting."

The four Rebels filed out into the hall and walked the disabled girl to her quarters, just down the hall to her quarters. The door automatically hissed open and the two large Rebel soldiers dropped her onto her bed in the corner on the other end of the room. The four Rebels walked out of the room and locked the door from the outside once they exited.

Ally lay in her bed, waiting for the feeling to return to her legs, hinking the whole time, "How am I gonna take back my ship?"

**There we are, it's done and the stage is set for the next action packed chapter. If you guys liked it or didn't like it, please tell me. All I have to tell is the Stats page.**

**Next Chapter Preview: Rebels vs. Droids**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm sorry that it's taken so long for me to update but things have moved rather quickly for my other stories and school has been tough so yeah, it's just been a genuine bitch trying to write up another chapter for this one. So without further ado, here we are.**

Chapter Five

Hyperspace, _New Divide_

The feeling finally returned to her legs after about an hour of waiting on her bed in her now locked room. So Ally finally swung her legs out to the side and started pacing, trying to figure a way out of this mess she had most recently found herself in. These Rebels were a strange lot, they'd refused to go to a place where they would be safe for who knows how long and they'd be able to unwind a bit, just relax and let the worries of war fade away. But no, they wanted to get back to their Rebellion and rendezvous with their escape fleet. And what's more, their commander, Jack had tried to turn her into a patriot and join them.

_Like that's happening_, she smirked.

She continued to pace, staring out at the cold metal walls of her room trying to figure a way out of it so she could retake her ship. But as she paced, her boots softly hitting her custom mad carpet floor she couldn't really think of anything until.

_The vent?_

She considered that for a moment it had been a design addition that she had put in herself for better comfort. The AC had been worthless when she first acquired the ship and so she'd activated the maintenance droids aboard the ship and started up new additions like a top of the line air conditioning system, a new carpet in her quarters, a gym, better food synthesizers, and improved navigational equipment. Of course she'd done all this with her own personal account thanks to her father before ever doing a single run with the_ New Divide_. It had taken quite a while for the ship to be actually remotely flyable for her and she just continued to make small milk runs for a small shipping company out on Sullust, but then she found herself in her boss's office and was very much hit on very aggressively. So she hit him with a stun device she always had on her wrist and fled, taking up smuggling for the thrill and the money. That was how she had ended up in this little predicament.

She knew that these Rebel soldiers were very much an interesting group. From the former Clone Trooper Gage, the gentle bearded giant Grey Past, the nut job Nester, the two eager rookies Fara and Dex, and the shady trooper Sam Intar. But what had her relative attention was their young leader, Corporal Jack Ruyus, quite the patriot, even to a fault.

_But he is definitely good in a fight_, she thought, remembering how he had fought on Hoth both against the Imperials and her. She shook the thought out of her head, and refocused. Kneeling down, the teenage Captain grabbed onto the metal grating and gently pulled it out and laid it down next to the vent and crawled in. Once she was safely inside the girl replaced the heavy cover and moved on, quietly snaking her way through the grimy and dusty shaft that ran through the whole ship. She knew where she needed to go and she wasted no time. She was getting her ship back, now.

"Hey Fara," Dex quietly spoke to his equally young comrade.

"Wassup?" the other Rebel asked, not moving from her spot seated on top of a crate of who knew what.

"What of you think is happening back home? I mean, do our families know if we're even alive?" Dex asked, a bit emotional.

"Yeah, I bet the Rebellion let them know we're missing."

"I hope so, knowing your parents they're likely to start inviting the whole galaxy to start looking for you," Dex chuckled.

"They don't even know I left," Fara soberly responded.

"What?"

"I told them I was going to Coruscant to see my uncle and cousins," she replied not even looking Dex in the eye, her blonde hair keeping her left eye hidden behind a stray lock of hair.

"You went off to fight without their knowing?"

"Yeah, when I heard that you and of the others were leaving I couldn't just sit there, even if my parents said no and hired a body guard to protect me and keep me from enlisting."

"You mean that's what Dredge was for, I thought that guy was for protection and to keep the guys from asking you out," Dex responded.

"No…well that last part my parent's always tried to do, but yeah he was there to keep me from joinging either side. They wanted me to stay home and marry a rich guy have some kids and…urgh! I hate to think about it!" she groaned angrily.

"You miss 'em?"

Fara lowered her head, fighting back tears, and hoarsely whispered, "Yeah."

"Me too," Dex replied looking down at his rifle and just started fiddling with it.

There was a really awkward bit of quiet between the two of them as they just sat there and were very much bored. All that was to be heard was a bit of humming from the ventilation system and the classic noises of ships in hyperspace. But then they heard something else, it sounded almost mechanical in nature and the two of them strained to hear it. Then it became very much audible, and then they saw what was making the noise, a single lone droid.

"Hey!" Fara yelled, yanking her Rebel urban helmet onto her head.

"Where'd you come from?" Dex yelled as the lone unarmed droid stood there a bit confused. Securing the helmet straps onto his head so that only his medium brunette hair peaked out from the back.

"Uh…" the droid stammered and decided to make a break for it.

"Hey!" Fara yelled as she took off after the droid.

Dex hustled right behind her setting his weapon to stun as he'd been instructed to by Gage as a measure to prevent them from killing Ally if she tried to escape. The droid rounded the corner and then Dex saw Fara stop dead and aim her weapon and then held still as Dex ran up next to her.

"Uh oh."

Standing in front of them were at least a half dozen B1 Battle Droids carrying their standard weaponry, all aimed at the two young Rebels. They were all painted the same way as the ones they thought they had been seeing lately but now they were now seeing them armed. And these two Rebels were in no position to be fighting it out with a group of Battle Droids.

"Fara, let's RUN!" Dex yelled as he and Fara turned and ran, blaster fire following them.

They ran down the box choked hall, and then rounded another corner with Fara in the lead as Dex ducked down and fired his own weapon, striking a droid in the chest, making it spark from the stunning blast and then collapse. The others pressed on, forcing him to break and run again, but this time he remembered to tap his comm link to alert the others to what was happening.

"Corporal, sir!"

The comm link buzzed back, "Dex what's goin' on?!"

"The droids!" he yelled as he dove over a crate, "They've activated! We're on our way to…"

Dex stopped at the corner to see the titanic figures of the gray painted and red "X" of the B2 Super Battle Droids. One held Fara in its grasp, restraining her as she struggled against its iron grip. Her A-295 rifle was on the ground with her helmet rolling on the ground. She couldn't even move her arms against as the large droid held her still as Dex aimed his rifle at the droid holding Fara and was about to pull the trigger when he felt the stinging blast of a bolt of blaster fire strike him in the left shoulder, he didn't feel pain at first, it was simply numb as he fell to the ground and heard Fara screaming out at the droids as he passed out.

"I said don't shoot them unless absolutely necessary!" Ally screamed as she came around the corner, "You know how powerful your stun rounds are!"

"Sorry mistress," Carpy replied, motioning for one of the other droids to pick up the unconscious Rebel, "Take them to the detention room."

"Roger roger," the titanic droid holding Fara replied walking off with her arms pinned to her sides as she continued to fight.

"Let me go you piece of tin! When I get my hands on you…" Ally zoned out as the screaming blonde was dragged away by the second B2, Juggernaut.

"The rest of you fan out and secure the ship, no killing, Titan…" she trailed off, letting her aggressive Super know she was serious.

"Yes mistress."

"Good, Titan, you and Carpy, Dingo, and Cisco are with me, we're headed to the bridge," Ally said, walking towards her ship's bridge in the forward section of the ship. She knew what would have to be done, and she would do it.

In the bridge the rest of the Rebels were assembled, ready to defend themselves, all except Nester who was inside the engine room as common sense would dictate. At least it would be common sense for them to have anyone but Nester in the engine room, but he knew the most about engines so they had no alternative. So here they were, awaiting orders to defend the ship.

"Okay, we're gonna need to control all major access points to the vital systems, Grey, you and Sam go to the main power conduits here," Jack ordered pointing at a hologram of the ship that was shimmering in front of the four Rebels, "Gage, you and I will be here, holding the bridge. If the droids try to make their way here we have to hold them."

"Got it boss," Grey said, "come on Sam, let's waste a few droids."

The two Rebels hustled out, weapons at the ready as the door opened. They were immediately however engaged by a few rogue droids that had spread out as far as the bridge. Immediately the two Rebels fired their weapons striking the frail B1'swith stunning fire, making the duo convulse and collapse from power overload. But then a larger more menacing droid rounded the corner with another droid in attendance and started firing. The two Rebels ducked and returned fire, but their stunning fire couldn't touch the large droid.

"Oh this isn't going well," Grey said, firing again, hitting the droid with a trio of blasts that f=made it stumble and pause in its advance as the other droid was joined by a quartet of other B1's which all started to advance.

"Oh no kidding big fella, whoa!" Sam replied, ducking down to have a blaster bolt electrify the area his head had been.

"You think we should fall back?" Grey said, looking at the area between them and the door. Blaster fire was thicker than snow in a blizzard and the two exchanged a look.

"No I'm good."

By this time the other two Rebels had taken cover and started firing their own weapons, Gage drew his prized pistols and started blazing blue bolts at his familiar foe. The first two droids fell to his expert aim as he fired away relentlessly as more and more droids continued to join the fight. It seemed that this Ally had a veritable army of the things and was simply reactivating every single one of the droids.

"At least we're distracting them from attacking Nester," Grey grumbled taking cover in the inner door as numerous blaster bolts struck his cover, electrifying the area.

"Damn," Jack responded, "no shit."

The fight dragged on, until a very familiar and very loud voice called out from above the group of Rebels, as the vent began shaking.

"Whoa!" Nester yelled, landing on top of a crate and rolled up off of the box and hopped to his feet rather quickly, "I'm fine."

The droids stopped what they were doing and just stared at the strange Rebel mechanic and then at each other and began trudging forward, and started firing again.

"Ow," Nester said calmly as another bolt struck his arm and then another hit his back and he just smiled as he fell back and then hit the ground hard, "OW!"

"Really?" Sam yelled in disbelief, only to get hit immediately by a quartet of laser blasts and rolled back against the wall as the stunning blows took their toll and neutralized the soldier.

"That's not good," Grey said as the Super Battle Droid stood over him and fired a blast from short range that hit the large soldier in the middle of the chest. He stumbled back, knocked barely conscious by the short range shots and saw the form of the droid firing up at the last two members of the team who were by now fighting for their lives, completely outnumbered by the superior force arrayed against them that just continued its push, despite being reduced in number every time one of them fired a shot.

"We need to get this door closed," Gage said, backing up as he too was forced into cover.

"Agreed, where's the door control?"

Both men looked at the door and saw that the door was controlled from an access point directly opposite Jack. So Jack nodded and immediately dove for it, firing as he fell to the deck and landed with a heavy thud next to the control panel as Gage dropped to a knee firing at the droids, stressing his fingers to the maximum and testing his seasoned pistols to their maximum output. Jack reached up and slapped the button down and was satisfied to see the door hiss shut as the droids pushed through their disabled comrades the massive B2 leading the charge.

"Well," Gage breathed, "now what?"

The man stood up, but immediately was shot from behind Jack. Gage convulsed as he fought the effects of the powerful weapon he had been hit by as he slowly slumped to the ground and was hit by several more blaster bolts. Jack stood up, weapon brought to bear on the attacker who had somehow sneaked into the bridge and was not surprised to see Ally holding her WESTAR 34 blaster pistol aimed at him. Jack fired the first instant he got, seeing his blue wavy projectile soar at her with incredible speed, his orange blast glasses enhanced his color vision, making everything stand out compared to the other objects around the bridge and had a singular focus on his mission, neutralize the hostiles. This he could do.

Ally ducked, her long brown hair following her down as she ducked down behind a console and swung back around to aim her pistol, only to see that her target had closed in to very close proximity. Jack swung his rifle to face Ally but she instead kicked out as it came towards her, stopping its progress and knocking it free of Jack's hands. But the young soldier was unfazed at all, he ducked as the fire from Ally's pistol soared over his head and he ducked down and slammed into her, his armor protecting him from the tough hit to the tiled ground. They rolled to the ground, with Jack ending up in the position of power over Ally, and pinned her arms down easily as she tried to kick at him.

Ally knew that she was overpowered, and in a bad spot, she had no strength necessary to dislodge Jack. Try as she might she couldn't do it unless she could catch him off balance. But when she slipped her hands and their faces came closer she came up with an idea, it was impromptu but she really had no alternative, so she swallowed the lingering doubt that it wouldn't work and went for it. With their faces barely a few inches apart Ally brought her head up and laid the most forceful kiss she could muster. The maneuver was not something that the soldier had been expecting and hesitated, their lips still locked together. Jack had no clue what he was going to do, nothing had prepared him for this type of move in a fight and he was certainly dumbfounded by the bold move. Their lips stroked against one another awkwardly at first, Ally leading the way, driven by desperation, but yet still keeping her head on her shoulders but she slowly grabbed a small comm link sized device from her wrist and prepared to lunge with it. Bringing her head back and disconnecting their lips she looked Jack right in the eyes, although shielded behind the blast glasses she could see that her maneuver had worked and that she had put him completely off balance, she smiled seductively and then in the blink of an eye she snapped her hand up and slammed the pocket stunner right into Jack's neck. Raw debilitating power surged through him and he shook from the shock of the attack and finally passed out. Falling to the left and off of her Ally scramble d to her feet and grabbed her pistol to be sure that he wasn't pulling some kind of trick of his own. But the Rebel trooper was out like a light and she finally started to regain her breath, brushing a loose strand of hair back out of her eyes she stood straight up and attempted to regain her composure.

"Uh…were you doing what we thought you were doing?" the voice of her droid Carpy piped up.

Whirling around Ally saw that her droids had entered the room stealthily and had apparently stood there when she had kissed Jack. Her face flushed a bright red and her heart fluttered as she contemplated this. But she did it out of cruel calculation and utter desperation, why was she embarrassed about it? Did she enjoy it? Then, as the feeling flooded to her extremities she came to a cruel truth. She had kissed him, and liked it!

"Carpy…if you…" she stuttered.

"Uh-huh right," the droid sassed back.

"Just get him out of here."

"Roger roger, we'll be sure not to hurt your boyfriend."

"Carpy!"

**Well…that was an interesting start to what is going to be something kinda special wouldn't you guys say? From fighting to kissing, and enjoying it, that is something that is a lot like many relationships isn't it. Well thanks for reading and I would love it if ya'll would review, just so I know what you guys thought of this story so far, have you enjoyed it? Have you liked the plot? Is there anything I need to work on? IS there anything you would suggest? I'm open to suggestions so please let me know.**

**Next Chapter Preview: Facing the truth, among the clouds. **


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